Israeli Doubles Team Makes Quarters

Israel’s Andy Ram and Yoni Erlich are into the quarterfinals of the men’s doubles tennis event at the London Olympics, after stunning the sixth-seeded pairing of Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka in three sets.

The Israeli duo – known locally as AndYoni – were brushed aside in a poor first set, when the Swiss pair raced to a 4-0 lead on the back of two consecutive breaks of service. Despite winning their first game of the match to make it 4-1, the Israelis were then broken for a third time in the seventh game of the set, giving the favored Swiss players a comfortable 6-1 win.

In a tense second set, there were no breaks of serve at all and, after 40 nervous minutes, the players went into a tie-break – which AndYoni won 7-5.

Buoyed by their performance in the second set, the Israelis began confidently and when they broke serve in the fourth game, it became clear that a shock was on the cards. In the end, that was all AndYoni needed and they served out the set for one of their greatest victories.